Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development

Millions of farmers in developing countries suffer from no, or poor quality grid power, which limits the productivity and earnings needed to both feed the ever growing population and to lift millions of farmers and farming communities out of poverty. To address these persistent barriers to development, USAID has partnered with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Duke Energy and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation to create Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development.

Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development (PAEGC) seeks to identify and support new and sustainable approaches to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy solutions for increasing agriculture productivity and/or value in developing countries. Your ideas can help farmers find innovative clean energy solutions to power their farms and empower their lives. Be part of the solution at http://www.poweringag.org

Video Transcript

Energy is critical to sustaining life because energy is vital to producing one of the basic necessities… food… in quantities that will feed the world's ever-growing population. And yet, energy is often unavailable to food producers and distributors in developing countries who grow and sell food. Energy access affects people at every stage of the agricultural value chain. With energy, a farmer can use irrigation to grow more food, can decrease the amount of food that spoils after the harvest through refrigeration, and can earn more income through processing such as making milk into cheese or drying fruit, but energy access means more than just feeding families and communities. Access to energy allows a farmer to produce more food at lower cost in less time. This means she has more time to spend with her family, participate in her community and grow her business. Without energy, a farmer's productivity and income are limited. She can't feed her country or grow its economy. All too often, she can't even feed her family. So how do we connect farmers and farm related businesses to the energy that will allow them to increase production, security and profits? How can they get access to energy that is both clean and affordable? The key is coming up with innovative, sustainable energy solutions that will transform the lives of these farmers. But who will provide these big ideas? You. Join the Powering Agriculture Energy Grand Challenge for Development. Help us find the market-based solutions that will offer farmers in developing countries clean, reliable, affordable power. Power that will help increase food security and drive economic growth. Be part of the solution. Visit PoweringAg.org to learn more, join the discussion and share your ideas and innovations.